Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products -- because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects have to be taken into consideration -- of which certain criteria consists of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply, and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with, and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We're not going to try to BS you by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, it is not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 9W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is excellent. Independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the SilverStone Strider Titanium ST1300-TI 1300W delivered excellent efficiency and generally excellent voltage regulation and ripple across all rails. The only exception was high or out-of-specification +12V voltage ripple at some high load configurations; two reviews have reported this issue at press time. This is an 80 Plus Titanium certified power supply unit.
Voltages with minimal load are generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation, all are within 4%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard of 300ms.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it; as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. What we want is the average usable power -- with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. A nominal load of only 50W (3.80%) on the SilverStone Strider Titanium ST1300-TI 1300W had the power factor at 0.93. This is incredible, considering many PSUs do not hit 0.99 until at least 25% to 30% load.
The SilverStone Strider Titanium ST1300-TI 1300W is a silent to reasonably quiet power supply, depending on the amount of power being drawn. Under idle level loads -- less than approximately 200W -- the ST1300-TI is inaudible, because the fan is shut off completely. Under regular loads -- above 200W but below 300W -- the 1300W Strider Titanium is reasonably low noise. Personally, I found the Yate Loon D14BH-12 to be pretty good for a double ball bearing fan, but it is not as quiet as fluid dynamic bearing fans. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the SilverStone Strider Titanium ST1300-TI 1300W to be at 0.0/10 when the fan is off, because, well, the fan is off. Above that, I would peg it at 2.5/10 acoustically under nominal loads, because the fan spins really slowly. The fan is out of the way to approximately 50% of its maximum speed, but it will become exponentially more audible when it kicks in. If you are a silent PC enthusiast, the SilverStone Strider Titanium ST1300-TI 1300W is a respectable choice, especially when the fan is off, but it comes with an aggressive fan ramp up profile for those with high power demands like cryptocurrency mining.
SilverStone provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
The SilverStone Strider Titanium ST1300-TI 1300W is a quality power supply from Enhance that delivered generally excellent performance according to our affiliates with professional load testing equipment. The only issue is two independent reports have indicated some +12V voltage ripple control problems at certain high load combinations. That aside, the Strider Titanium 1300W is a seriously powerful PSU with top notch efficiency, and even a passive mode for fanless operation at low loads. For $330 at press time, there is a price to pay for high wattage and high efficiency. Oh, and a solid five-year warranty.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
